This month has been pretty quiet, with Zulu and Woody having gone back home to Scotland for some well earned chill out time immediately after Bramham, and we’ve had a brief hiatus from competing. I think it’s really important for them to have a mental break as well as a physical one after a three-day as it’s a huge buzz for them as well, and I think it’s nice for them to have a mid season rejuvenation. With that in mind I actually went on a mini break to Cornwall for a weekend as well, with a friend from Uni, which was amazing. There is something about the sea air down there that is just so refreshing, and it just feels ‘chilled.’ We had a great time hitting the beach, eating a lot and even treating ourselves to a little drink on Sunday night – pretty ideal! So I returned for an intensive week of paperwork and much needed organising, and re-bonded with my faithful laptop.
During this period of calm I also made the most of being able to escape to London in search of sponsors. Indeed, I made a couple of presentations (having reintroduced myself to the wonders of ‘power point’), so fingers crossed something might come of one of them…. And on a similar note I have been trying to recruit some new owners; thankfully with some success! Ken Rehill, who owns the amazing stallions Grafenstolz and Royaldik (amongst others) has offered to support me, along with Cameron Crawford who is a great owner and rider figure on the Scottish circuit. This is VERY exciting news, and we are going out to Germany to look for a suitable star next week!
This month has also seen me wave goodbye to a couple of lovely horses – ‘Fred’ who has been bought by a lady in Warwickshire for her daughter Olivia to have some fun with at a lower level, and Lanny, who is a very smart 4 yr old I had in for a month and will hopefully go on to do great things. It’s always sad selling horses as you can’t help getting attached to them, but unfortunately it needs to be done to fund the enterprise, and this is consequently an aspect I am hoping to develop more.
I’ve also had my little sister Al staying for the last 3 weeks which has been great fun, although somewhat shamefully we still haven’t hit the streets of Oxford yet! She has however taken on the role of flat chef, which has been a massive treat. Despite the lack of any major events we seem to have occupied ourselves pretty well with local activities – cross-country schooling at Boomerang and Lyneham, show-jumping at Summerhouse and we made the trip to Adam Kemp’s for an intensive Dressage day earlier on too. Amongst that we’ve had some Dressage competition practise at Fairoak, which was actually pretty successful with Pavonita winning her first ever Elementary and Longwood taking a close 2nd, and Barbury where P proved she was back on form finishing 10th in a very tough Novice. I say ‘back on form’ as I’m trying to forget about our unbelievably dismal trip to Stonar a week or so ago… Having had to make 3 U turns en route there – for which I blame the worst signage ever – Perky thought the show-jumps were too small and took the mickey, whilst The Masai Warrior mis-read the skinny exiting the coffin and gave me my first ever UR at an event. Following that, Al’s horse lost a shoe in the Dressage, so we decided to call it a day and left, a depressing 9 hours later! What made it all the more unfortunate was that being the idiot I am, I had forgotten to clip on my airjacket, so it was a little more painful than it should have been!! However, as I pointed out to the slightly surprised fence judges, at least I saved my £10 for a new canister!
This month we are building up to full speed again with Zul and Woody preparing for the U25 Advanced at Aston, and I’ve also been asked to teach at Junior Camp for the Old Berks, which will be a great intro into PC activity no doubt!
